April 27, 2014
CAUGHT IN A CABARET, released April 27th, 1914
Chaplin's twelfth Keystone was directed by Mabel Normand even though Chaplin is often listed as co-director. However, the film contains so many Chaplinesque ideas, it's obvious that she gave Chaplin the same creative free rein that director Joseph Maddern did with Twenty Minutes Of Love.
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I know Charlie and Mabel didn't get along well in business. I think she was allowed to direct and start her own studio even but she did not live long. I think she got herself into some murder scandal by association where she was present during the crime. (where she was found innocent). It is good Charlie didn't get involved with her.
ReplyDeleteNormand was linked to a couple of scandals. One was the William Desmond Taylor murder, which I don't believe has ever been solved. Mabel had been dating Taylor and was the last person to see him alive. Another scandal was the shooting of Courtland Dines by Normand's chauffeur. Edna Purviance was in the center of this one as well because she was seeing Dines at the time and was at his home when the shooting occurred (Dines survived).
DeleteI've come to appreciate Mabel Normand more and more and she could truly be called, The First Lady of Silent Comedy. A pity her career was not longer.
ReplyDeleteHave you guys heard the argument that Charlie owed alot more to Mabel than originally thought? Alot of people are contending that she gave him the idea for the walk and the Tramp costume. I like Mabel, maybe the more I watch of her I will learn to love her, but I just can't buy that for some reason.
ReplyDeleteYou can't buy it because it's not true!
DeleteSee that's what I thought too but I was wondering if anybody else had heard about it. I think it might just be her fans trying to give her to much credit for something she never did......
DeleteI'd never heard about it until you mentioned it. They must assume she had something to do with his costume because he first appeared in it in a film she directed (Mabel's Strange Predicament).
DeleteOf course I can't find the article now, but what it basically said was that when she copied the Tramp walk, which i believe they said she did in Mabel's Married Life, she does it better than Charlie. Their logic than goes on to state that since she could do it better than Charlie she must have given him the idea...
DeleteOf course my theory is that maybe she made it look more ridiculous that he did. Doesn't mean she did it better or that she gave him the idea. How could she do it better when it was Charlie's walk?
Sorry I just thought that would be an interesting tidbit for all.
Is this the article?
Deletehttp://looking-for-mabel.webs.com/mabelsmarriedlife.htm
No but it kindof essentially says what the other article did. Good find too.
DeleteIs that Edna Purviance in the bar scenes as an extra in Caught In A Cabaret? She can be seen sitting at the middle table in the early scenes, then sitting at the back of the room in later scenes
ReplyDeleteHi Darren,
DeleteNo, that is not Edna. This is a bit too early for her. She didn't meet Chaplin until January 1915, after he had already left Keystone, so she wouldn't have been in any of his films from that period.
Jess